Published 1:04 am, Sunday, January 20, 2013

He wasn't worried or scared or angry. The warning signs had been there for some time, and that's why Calhoun had decided to get tested. And now, waiting for the results of the prostate specific antigen test, Calhoun and his wife, Pat, had already decided what they were going to do and how they were going to do it.

If it was prostate cancer (and it was), they were going to attack it head on.

Surgery was performed, Calhoun recovered, and just three weeks after the operation, the coach of the UConn men's basketball team was back on the sidelines.

He never thought he'd hear the word "cancer" again.

But he did.

The prostate surgery took place in 2003, and for four years, Calhoun had regular check-ups and tests, and each one was clean. But then, in 2007, he discovered a small, boil-like cyst on his neck, and when it wouldn't go away, he eventually decided to have a biopsy done.

It took a week for the results to come back. When they did, the report from Dr. Jeffrey Spiro was not good.

"When (the doctor) said a week later that I had (squamous cell) cancer, now that one, I had no idea," Calhoun said, speaking at a ballroom full of people at the ninth annual Swim Across the Sound Sports Gala event at Anthony's Ocean View restaurant. "That was scary. That would be scary for anybody. I don't care who you are. I was sitting in there and Pat said to me, `We'll get through this,' and I knew we would, but it wasn't the kind of situation that anyone would want to be in."

Created in 2004, the Swim's Sports Gala benefits police, fire, corrections officers and EMS personnel and their families that are battling cancer. And what better spokesperson than Calhoun, 70, a fighter in every sense of the word who had faced the dreaded "C" word four times in the past decade. Four times, he has won the fight.

"The first time, I wasn't nervous about something that happens," he said. "With prostate cancer, quite frankly, there are enough signs, warnings there. My point is, when someone comes in and says those words (cancer) to you, you have the sense of, `What can we do about this?'"

In Calhoun's case, you fight it, you beat it, and then you become a spokesperson for cancer awareness. Four times, he has been a speaker at a Swim Across the Sound event -- the Swim was created by St. Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport to help provide cancer screenings, education and prevention programs at low or no cost for the underinsured and uninsured -- and each time, the former UConn coach has been more than willing to spread the word.

Because along with the prostate cancer in 2003 and the neck cancer in 2007, Calhoun had a cancerous piece of skin removed from his cheek in 2008. Last May, he had surgery to remove a small mass from his lung that was later determined to be cancerous.

"This event, along with St. Vincent's (Hospital), the first responders here and the fact that so many of them or their families are dealing with cancer, this is something that not only am I happy to do, I'm honored to do," Calhoun said. "These are special people. They make a great impact. In athletics, we keep using the word `hero' and `courage' and I maintain that we misplace that word.

"For someone ... and I bring this up because it's relevant to our state and because of the closeness to Newtown, I can't imagine going into that school. I can't. Out of all the things that I did, people are saying, `You're a tough guy' ... no. I couldn't. But in a moment of crisis, they did their jobs (following the school shootings on Dec. 14).

"I just think that, to come down here, to speak about something that's affected me, that I can hopefully share some things with them and put things in perspective with something that I've battled four times now. And anybody who's had it will tell you that ... you can't let it dominate your life or change your life, but it's something that is there and if you're fortunate, you're able to just keep on fighting the good fight."